Ant-Man and The Wasp's Mid-Credits Scene is The Real Ending of the Movie

This story contains spoilers for Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp and Avengers: Infinity War.

Ant-Man and The Wasp continues the longstanding Marvel Cinematic Universe tradition of post-credits scenes - the film has two in total, one midway through the credits and one at the very end - but unlike most of the previous Marvel movies, where the stingers were playful bonus scenes or Easter eggs for comic book fans, you'll be missing out on a major plot twist if you decide to leave the theater as soon the movie ends... mostly because Scott, Hope and Cassie's miniaturized drive-in movie night isn't really the end of the movie.

The first post-credits scene finds Scott venturing back into the Quantum Realm to gather more healing particles to continue Ghost's treatments, with Hope, Hank, and Janet staying behind to operate the Quantum Gateway tech, which is now stashed in the back of Luis' van. The mission goes off without a hitch until Scott radios back to the regular-sized world for Hope and her parents to bring him back, and we see that all three have been killed by Thanos' snap, leaving nothing but ash floating on the breeze as an increasingly panicked Scott tries to reach them. Ouch.

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Naturally, this is a pretty major revelation - one that has huge repercussions for Avengers 4 and beyond - so you would think that Marvel wouldn't want to risk the chance that moviegoers might leave before seeing that devastating kicker and then show up to Avengers 4 expecting to see Hope playing a major role alongside Scott.

Still, that ballsy decision speaks to how well the MCU has trained moviegoers to stick around until the end of the credits - clearly the studio isn't too worried that fans would rush out early, especially since the rest of Ant-Man and The Wasp resolutely avoids making any reference to Thanos or the events of Avengers: Infinity War. (Perhaps Marvel just wants to ensure that the film ages well as a fairly standalone adventure, since the end of Avengers 4 will presumably undo at least some of the damage wrought by that snap.)

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Ant-Man/Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) in Ant-Man and the Wasp

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Ant-Man/Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) in Ant-Man and the Wasp

Ant-Man and the Wasp Photos

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The second post-credits scene, featuring a giant ant playing the drums, manages to be both funny and chilling, before the movie ends with a reassuring statement - "Ant-Man and The Wasp will return" - that quickly turns ominous when a question mark appears at the end, rendering that observation a little less certain.

Naturally, we expect that Scott will eventually find his way out of the Quantum Realm without Hope, Hank, or Janet's help (we're counting on you, Luis!) and that his adventures in the subatomic dimension will somehow help the Avengers defeat Thanos and undo the effects of his universe-balancing snap, but we honestly have no idea how at this point - and that's pretty exciting. Well played, Marvel.